Asnæs Skov, Bay at Kalundborg Fjord

1839

Asnæs Skov, Bay at Kalundborg Fjord, 1839. Johan Thomas Lundbye (Danish, 1818–1848). Pen and black ink and gray and brown ink washes with arched framing line in pen and black ink, bordered in pink watercolor on modern cream laid paper; sheet: 18.9 x 30 cm (7 7/16 x 11 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Alma Kroeger Fund 2022.87 Johan Thomas Lundbye belonged to the youngest generation of artists working during Denmark’s Golden Age, a period of unprecedented creative activity. This drawing depicts a wooded area on a narrow bay near the town where the artist grew up. Lundbye worked outdoors, directly from nature, aiming to create a work that conveyed his experience of nature. With exacting precision, he conveyed the scene’s solitude and featured a large dolmen, meant to allude to the region’s ancient past. Copenhagen’s Kunstforeningen, an exhibition society for contemporary art, purchased this drawing from Lundbye shortly after its creation—a practice meant to extend the organization’s support of artists.